House Democrats say FCC has right to limit spectrum bidders

House Republicans are trying to "advance a one-sided re-interpretation of the goals and meaning" of the incentive spectrum auction by warning the Federal Communications Commission against limiting the participation of bidders, according to a letter from six Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The spectrum law "explicitly preserves the FCC's pre-existing authority to issue rules limiting the amount of spectrum that companies can bid for or own, as long as the rules do not name specific entities or specific persons," the Democrats wrote.